Get legal input on a proposed management buyout

This consultation is for talking through the legal shape of a proposed management buyout rather than running the whole transaction from start to finish. We can cover the intended deal structure, who is buying, whether shares or assets are involved, what the sale and purchase agreement may need to address, and where funding, security or existing shareholder arrangements may complicate the deal. You can also raise due diligence concerns, confidentiality issues and completion planning. If the matter needs document drafting or negotiations afterwards, that would usually be a separate stage of work.

It is commonly booked by management teams considering buying out an owner, founders planning an internal exit, or business owners wanting to understand what a management-led sale may involve before committing to full legal work. It can also help where the parties already know each other commercially but have not yet mapped the legal steps properly. That is often where issues emerge around price mechanics, funding arrangements, restraints, warranties or decision-making rights under existing shareholder documents.

A broader service is usually needed once the deal moves beyond early-stage planning and into live drafting, negotiations or implementation. For example, if the parties are negotiating warranties, indemnities, deferred payment terms, security arrangements or completion deliverables, a one-off consultation may no longer be enough. The same applies where there are multiple shareholders, lender requirements, employee incentive issues or a detailed disclosure process. In those situations, the consultation can still be a useful first step, but the transaction will often need a fuller legal workstream.

We can talk through whether a management buyout appears commercially and legally workable based on the facts you share, and compare some of the practical implications of different approaches. For example, we may discuss whether a share sale or asset sale structure changes the risk profile, what existing shareholder rights might affect the proposal, and where funding terms could influence the deal. The consultation helps you assess options and legal risk, but it is not a promise that one structure will suit every scenario or that the transaction will proceed on the terms you want.

After the consultation, you should have a clearer view of the legal work likely to be involved and which documents or issues need attention first. In many management buyouts, the next step is broader transaction support such as reviewing or preparing the sale and purchase agreement, considering funding documents, checking existing shareholder restrictions, or planning completion mechanics. If you want Sprintlaw NZ to assist further, we can outline a separate scope for that follow-on work. The consultation itself does not include ongoing negotiation support after the meeting.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Management Buyout Legal Service service, pricing starts from $2,000.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.